Too Much Focus On Camera Phones
from the focus-on-the-crime,-not-the-technology dept
There's been all this fear-mongering about the dangers of people using mobile phones to take pictures of people without their knowledge, so the second someone is actually caught trying to do so, the press turns it into a story worth covering. The point here, though, shouldn't be to focus on the fact that this school crossing guard/playground supervisor was trying to take pictures of these students with a camera phone, but the fact that he was in the girls bathroom at all. It should be obvious to just about anyone that a male adult does not belong in an elementary school girl's bathroom. Furthermore, by this point, anyone with half a brain should be suspicious if someone has pulled out a camera phone in a public restroom. It certainly sounds like that was the case here. The guy seems to have been caught pretty quickly. While reaction to this story is likely to be more calls for banning camera phones - that's the wrong response. Clearly, the normal methods worked here. People saw right away that this guy was doing something wrong, and he was apprehended.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Too much focus???
Get a life! Hang up the phone, and talk with the people around you!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Too much focus???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What a Luddite...
The people around me are assholes, you insensitive clod!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What a Luddite...
As to the topic, it is the start of Video Conference over mobile phone. Well, it is still quite a ways off.
But I am with you in one way... Get Off The PhonE!! Drive your car!! (And yes, I did see a woman driving and taking pictures with her phone... Thank God I do not carry a ballistic weapon.. Bang,Bang,Bang,Bang,Bang,Bang...reload...Bang...)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
RE: Too much focus???
But it can be a really enjoyable thing - I hear stories all the time.
One example: a friend was graduating - her family was sooooo far back from the stage they couldn't see a thing. So she took photos of the stage and the proceedings around her and instantly sent them directly to her family way out in the "cheap seats".
Necessary? Of course not. But that doesn't mean there aren't uses and people don't want one.
Is a TV necessary? Is wi-fi necessary? Are Game Boy's necessary? No, but suggesting that having them is kind of dumb may get you some odd looks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]